Hear the trumpets roar, the heartbeat of the drums, let the vocals take you to a different world, these are all things Sarah Homrighausen loves about Fine Arts.  Homrighausen, a junior at Mount Vernon High School, participates in Concert Choir, Jazz Choir, Concert Band, Speech, Marching Band, and Musical Theatre, but her favorite of all the Fine arts is Jazz Choir.

 Jazz Choir combines all the things she likes about Fine Arts, such as singing and dancing. “Everybody treats you like a family member,” Homrighausen said. 

Her love for fine arts began when she was 6 or 7 years old with her first exposure to the Arts. Her family signed her up for Odyssey Theatre. Her first play was “Oliver Twist”. The community accepted her for who she was, just like Jazz Choir today, “Everybody could just joke around,” she said, they’d even mess around by impersonating different voices. 

Thanks to opportunities in the fine arts, Homrighausen learned her love for music. A second reason for her love of music is “People find a way to connect to those they don’t even know through music.” She explained that people bond over the story and emotion the song brings to the fans. Her favorite song from the Jazz choir is called “Blue Skies.” It was a very happy piece that appealed to Homrighausen. Her role in the choir is a soprano one, and she enjoys this part because it adds a spark to chords and harmonies in the choir. Choir Director Thad Wilkins always aims to make students smile and does his absolute best for the choir. She said he is very passionate about his teaching role.

A tough family moment that Homrighausen faced with her marching band was “The Bus story, which started when we were coming back to town from a marching band competition. One of the three buses broke in a Subway parking lot in Tipton, so we had to cram 50-60 kids from that bus onto the other two buses. The floor was all muddy from everyone’s shoes. That combined with the crabbiness of everyone just wasn’t a great combo, but we managed to pull through and get home safe.”

All in all, there were ups and downs, but that is what family is there for. They support you when you are up and get you back onto your feet when you are down… or cramped in a bus.